Darkest
Banned
The History of the Latter-Day Saint Movement
The Kirtland Safety Society (KSS) was a quasi-bank organized in 1836 by the leaders and followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was intended to serve the banking needs of the growing Mormon community in Kirtland, Ohio. However, to their misfortune, the Panic of 1837 hit the nation. Nearly four-hundred banks had to close. Smaller, privately held financial institutions, like the KSS, failed in droves. The Kirtland Safety Society fell horribly, with vigorous repercussions. A five-year depression followed throughout the United States.
This had a profound effect on the growing Mormon Church. It weakened the people's trust in their prophet, and caused many dissensions. Former follower's blamed Joseph Smith for the depression and the soaring unemployment trend. Some of the founding members and leaders of the Church became disillusioned and left the Church, including Warren Parish and Martin Harris, who would drag many with them. Heber C. Kimball later recalled that "not twenty persons on earth" remained faithful to Smith after the disaster. Later, Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon would be chased out of Kirtland, to relocate in Clay County and Far West, to join with the members there and rebuild the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.
However, the Church leaders had been through a difficult and exhausting process to create the Kirtland Safety Society. The Ohio legislature hindered every move by the Mormon church to attain a bank charter.
The KSS was a blunder from the start. It only focused attention on the Mormons, earning them public scorn throughout Ohio and Kirtland, and did little to help any of them economically. Many higher-ups jailed and fined Smith and Rigdon for their 'illegal' bank, though larger quasi-banks were very prominent throughout Ohio and the surrounding areas.
So...
What if Joseph Smith did not feel so enthusiastic about the Kirtland Safety Society?
Joseph Smith Jr. was a prophet, and like all such individuals falling into the category, was severely influenced by hunches and inspirations.
Sydney Rigdon and Orson Hyde would still try to request a bank charter, and Joseph Smith would go along with their idea at first. However, feeling a little uneasy after the difficulties they would suffer from the Ohio legislature, Joseph Smith would ask the two to call off the project.
The year continues very much the same. The Church's money problems are still present, but there isn't a bank to muddle the situation.
In 1837, the National Bank Crisis hits the country, and the depression followed. Many members lost their jobs during the record unemployment bout, and poverity spread. In the end, many still became disillusioned of Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church.
The Prophet would call his Church together many times, preaching that only harmony with one another would bring about the end of the depression. Efforts were made to provide jobs, and the Mormon church dispersed to new areas to find prosperity. There was no quick fix, however. Nearly half of the Church in Kirtland would leave during those troubled times, especially during 1838-1839.
June, 1938
When in one month, nearly one hundred members leave the Church, with some publically announcing their disappointment with the Church, non-Mormon vigilantes believe their chance has come. In the troubled times, many had become opposed to the Mormons, blaming members for stealing jobs throughout Kirtland. Violence hits the city, and twenty-four members are lynched, to add to the month.
Joseph Smith calls the membership to relocate to Caldwell County, in Far West, where another host of Mormons had grown in considerable influence. The Prophet would announce that the Second Coming was close at hand, and set up many policies binding the Church and the state. He announced his intention to set up the city of Far West as the new Church headquarters.
August - More than a thousand Mormon members make it through the trek to Far West in the First March to the West. The more apathetic and unfaithful members would remain in Kirtland.
A group of zealous Mormons begin to meet together in Far West under the leadership of Sampson Avard, Jared Carter, and George W. Robinson to discuss the problem of the dissenters. The group organized under the name "The Daughters of Zion," but they would soon became known as the "Sons of Dan," after the warrior tribe of Israel, or the "Danites."
September - Leadership conflicts with David Whitmer come to a stand-off. David wants to continue to preside over the Church in Missouri. When they are also charged with multiple crimes for keeping Church funds for themselves, Whitmer and his followers (including notable W. W. Phelps) are excommunicated, and leave for Richmond, Missouri.
Democrat Judge Josiah Morin
October - The Church engages in colonialism in neighboring counties, which had not been done under the Whitmerites. Smith founds the settlements Adam-ondi-Ahman and DeWitt in nearby counties.
Danites hunt down and threaten dissenters, eager to move them from Mormon lands. Many flee to Richmond and Liberty, Missouri.
Oliver Cowdery, Second Elder of the Church, is excommunicated after he requests resignation.
November - Joseph Smith renames the Mormon Church to the 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints '.
December - The Prophet initiates the 'Law of Tithing', encouraging members to give a tenth of all of their produce and profit to the Church.
1839
January - W. W. Phelps is rebaptized into the Church after Joseph Smith affirms his repentance. However, having lost his standing, he will become a missionary for a few years.
February - Anti-Mormon mobs begin to gather in nearby counties. Mormon settlement has been extremely rapid, and many are feeling choked by their presence. New jobs are made with the greater population, but many more jobs are taken. Presiding in the county seat is Colonel Peniston, an avid anti-Mormon. Though he has not taken a vigorous stance, his attitude and notable snide comments have begun to galvanize the public against the Mormon wave.
Good news for the Mormons, is that the expansion into neighboring counties has provided a good bout of conversion.
March – Anti-Mormon mob converges on the house of David Brown, a Danite, who had been stirring up Millsport by quoting passages of the Book of Mormon in a beer hall. His walls are shot up, including his horse, and a stack of hay torched, but there are no casualties. Word quickly passes to the Danites. Sydney Rigdon converges on this topic in his Resistance Sermon, preaching that the Mormons will not continue to endure these tragedies.
The Missourian Mormon War
April – A council in Carroll County is called to decide on the Mormon question, with many Mormon settlers inside of the county already. Everyone votes in favor of forceful retaliation. An envoy is sent to tell the Mormons to leave. Many do not hear the message.
When they do not witness a mass exodus, Vigilante mobs form throughout Carroll County, attacking Mormon homes, and converging on the prospering settlement of DeWitt. Stables and houses are torched, and people killed.
June – Vigilantes encircle DeWitt, encamp outside, and continue a siege. Mormons, especially Danites, lead raids into the forests, killing many of the vigilantes.
July – After many structures are burned to the ground, Mormon leaders call for members to leave the settlement of DeWitt, beginning a major exodus back to Caldwell County.
August – Colonel Dunn leads militia against the Mormons in Daviess County.
After this organized assault on the Mormons, Colonel Hinkle takes up arms and with backing from the Mormon leaders and the Danites, begins to engage in vigilante activities. Marching in four groups, they would capture Millsport, Gallatin, Grindstone Fork of Daviess County, and force Colonel Dunn to retreat. Missourian families, vastly outnumbered, fled as best as they could in the cold to other counties. The Mormons plundered and guttered each settlement, and in the capital of Gallatin, not one building was left in a functional state, either burnt down or pillaged entirely.
As a marching, de facto militia, the Mormons would recapture DeWitt from the vigilantes. But they would not stop there. In the grips of the Danites, the Mormons would move to Richmond, engaging local dissident Mormons and pushing them out, plundering the city, and then begin a systematic razing of the city, complete with torching. News of this horrendous act known as the Burning of Richmond would travel quickly throughout Missouri. The same treatment would be given to Liberty, though many more buildings would survive intact.
The Mormons under the Danites had begun a reign of revenge and terror in the region. Even so, many feared retribution, gathering in strong points such as Adam-ondi-Ahman and DeWitt and beginning fortifications.
August 24 - 27 – Colonel Samuel Bogart leads a militia into an undefended area of Caldwell County, attacking unarmed Mormons and burning homes to the ground. Church leaders call for retribution from the ‘vigilante mobs’ and a force is quickly sent to challenge them. The Mormons capture the militia group unaware, killing more than half, delivering a fatal shot to Bogart, and taking the rest to a prison in Far West.
September 2 – After hearing reports of the capture of Bogart’s militia, Generals Atchison, Doniphon and Parks decided they needed to call out the militia to prevent further violence. Missouri’s governor, Lilburn Boggs, however, feared the worse and issued an Extermination Order, making it legal for any citizen of Missouri to kill, steal from, or rape a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
September 6 – Colonel Jennings of northern Livington County assembles 275 militiamen to strike back at the Mormons. Moving into eastern Caldwell County, unprotected, they assemble to attack Haun’s Mill. The soldiers opened fire for a surprise attack, sending the 80 Mormon families there fleeing for the hills. Women and children attempted to make it into the woods, while the boys and men set up to defend the settlement. Though they managed to kill seven of the militiamen, they were all eventually shot down in the end. In all, 39 Mormons were killed in what would become the Haun’s Mill Massacre, in addition to the 7 militia.
News would soon reach Far West, where an enraged populace would begin to assemble a militia for revenge. However, the Mormons were now clearly on the defensive.
***
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_War#The_Gallatin_Election_Day_Battle
Sorry for cutting you guys off at the last moment there, but I've really got to get some shut-eye.
Look forward for more!
The Kirtland Safety Society (KSS) was a quasi-bank organized in 1836 by the leaders and followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was intended to serve the banking needs of the growing Mormon community in Kirtland, Ohio. However, to their misfortune, the Panic of 1837 hit the nation. Nearly four-hundred banks had to close. Smaller, privately held financial institutions, like the KSS, failed in droves. The Kirtland Safety Society fell horribly, with vigorous repercussions. A five-year depression followed throughout the United States.
This had a profound effect on the growing Mormon Church. It weakened the people's trust in their prophet, and caused many dissensions. Former follower's blamed Joseph Smith for the depression and the soaring unemployment trend. Some of the founding members and leaders of the Church became disillusioned and left the Church, including Warren Parish and Martin Harris, who would drag many with them. Heber C. Kimball later recalled that "not twenty persons on earth" remained faithful to Smith after the disaster. Later, Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon would be chased out of Kirtland, to relocate in Clay County and Far West, to join with the members there and rebuild the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.
However, the Church leaders had been through a difficult and exhausting process to create the Kirtland Safety Society. The Ohio legislature hindered every move by the Mormon church to attain a bank charter.
The KSS was a blunder from the start. It only focused attention on the Mormons, earning them public scorn throughout Ohio and Kirtland, and did little to help any of them economically. Many higher-ups jailed and fined Smith and Rigdon for their 'illegal' bank, though larger quasi-banks were very prominent throughout Ohio and the surrounding areas.
So...
What if Joseph Smith did not feel so enthusiastic about the Kirtland Safety Society?
Joseph Smith Jr. was a prophet, and like all such individuals falling into the category, was severely influenced by hunches and inspirations.
Sydney Rigdon and Orson Hyde would still try to request a bank charter, and Joseph Smith would go along with their idea at first. However, feeling a little uneasy after the difficulties they would suffer from the Ohio legislature, Joseph Smith would ask the two to call off the project.
The year continues very much the same. The Church's money problems are still present, but there isn't a bank to muddle the situation.
In 1837, the National Bank Crisis hits the country, and the depression followed. Many members lost their jobs during the record unemployment bout, and poverity spread. In the end, many still became disillusioned of Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church.
The Prophet would call his Church together many times, preaching that only harmony with one another would bring about the end of the depression. Efforts were made to provide jobs, and the Mormon church dispersed to new areas to find prosperity. There was no quick fix, however. Nearly half of the Church in Kirtland would leave during those troubled times, especially during 1838-1839.
June, 1938
When in one month, nearly one hundred members leave the Church, with some publically announcing their disappointment with the Church, non-Mormon vigilantes believe their chance has come. In the troubled times, many had become opposed to the Mormons, blaming members for stealing jobs throughout Kirtland. Violence hits the city, and twenty-four members are lynched, to add to the month.
Joseph Smith calls the membership to relocate to Caldwell County, in Far West, where another host of Mormons had grown in considerable influence. The Prophet would announce that the Second Coming was close at hand, and set up many policies binding the Church and the state. He announced his intention to set up the city of Far West as the new Church headquarters.
August - More than a thousand Mormon members make it through the trek to Far West in the First March to the West. The more apathetic and unfaithful members would remain in Kirtland.
A group of zealous Mormons begin to meet together in Far West under the leadership of Sampson Avard, Jared Carter, and George W. Robinson to discuss the problem of the dissenters. The group organized under the name "The Daughters of Zion," but they would soon became known as the "Sons of Dan," after the warrior tribe of Israel, or the "Danites."
September - Leadership conflicts with David Whitmer come to a stand-off. David wants to continue to preside over the Church in Missouri. When they are also charged with multiple crimes for keeping Church funds for themselves, Whitmer and his followers (including notable W. W. Phelps) are excommunicated, and leave for Richmond, Missouri.
Democrat Judge Josiah Morin
October - The Church engages in colonialism in neighboring counties, which had not been done under the Whitmerites. Smith founds the settlements Adam-ondi-Ahman and DeWitt in nearby counties.
Danites hunt down and threaten dissenters, eager to move them from Mormon lands. Many flee to Richmond and Liberty, Missouri.
Oliver Cowdery, Second Elder of the Church, is excommunicated after he requests resignation.
November - Joseph Smith renames the Mormon Church to the 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints '.
December - The Prophet initiates the 'Law of Tithing', encouraging members to give a tenth of all of their produce and profit to the Church.
1839
January - W. W. Phelps is rebaptized into the Church after Joseph Smith affirms his repentance. However, having lost his standing, he will become a missionary for a few years.
February - Anti-Mormon mobs begin to gather in nearby counties. Mormon settlement has been extremely rapid, and many are feeling choked by their presence. New jobs are made with the greater population, but many more jobs are taken. Presiding in the county seat is Colonel Peniston, an avid anti-Mormon. Though he has not taken a vigorous stance, his attitude and notable snide comments have begun to galvanize the public against the Mormon wave.
Good news for the Mormons, is that the expansion into neighboring counties has provided a good bout of conversion.
March – Anti-Mormon mob converges on the house of David Brown, a Danite, who had been stirring up Millsport by quoting passages of the Book of Mormon in a beer hall. His walls are shot up, including his horse, and a stack of hay torched, but there are no casualties. Word quickly passes to the Danites. Sydney Rigdon converges on this topic in his Resistance Sermon, preaching that the Mormons will not continue to endure these tragedies.
The Missourian Mormon War
April – A council in Carroll County is called to decide on the Mormon question, with many Mormon settlers inside of the county already. Everyone votes in favor of forceful retaliation. An envoy is sent to tell the Mormons to leave. Many do not hear the message.
When they do not witness a mass exodus, Vigilante mobs form throughout Carroll County, attacking Mormon homes, and converging on the prospering settlement of DeWitt. Stables and houses are torched, and people killed.
June – Vigilantes encircle DeWitt, encamp outside, and continue a siege. Mormons, especially Danites, lead raids into the forests, killing many of the vigilantes.
July – After many structures are burned to the ground, Mormon leaders call for members to leave the settlement of DeWitt, beginning a major exodus back to Caldwell County.
August – Colonel Dunn leads militia against the Mormons in Daviess County.
After this organized assault on the Mormons, Colonel Hinkle takes up arms and with backing from the Mormon leaders and the Danites, begins to engage in vigilante activities. Marching in four groups, they would capture Millsport, Gallatin, Grindstone Fork of Daviess County, and force Colonel Dunn to retreat. Missourian families, vastly outnumbered, fled as best as they could in the cold to other counties. The Mormons plundered and guttered each settlement, and in the capital of Gallatin, not one building was left in a functional state, either burnt down or pillaged entirely.
As a marching, de facto militia, the Mormons would recapture DeWitt from the vigilantes. But they would not stop there. In the grips of the Danites, the Mormons would move to Richmond, engaging local dissident Mormons and pushing them out, plundering the city, and then begin a systematic razing of the city, complete with torching. News of this horrendous act known as the Burning of Richmond would travel quickly throughout Missouri. The same treatment would be given to Liberty, though many more buildings would survive intact.
The Mormons under the Danites had begun a reign of revenge and terror in the region. Even so, many feared retribution, gathering in strong points such as Adam-ondi-Ahman and DeWitt and beginning fortifications.
August 24 - 27 – Colonel Samuel Bogart leads a militia into an undefended area of Caldwell County, attacking unarmed Mormons and burning homes to the ground. Church leaders call for retribution from the ‘vigilante mobs’ and a force is quickly sent to challenge them. The Mormons capture the militia group unaware, killing more than half, delivering a fatal shot to Bogart, and taking the rest to a prison in Far West.
September 2 – After hearing reports of the capture of Bogart’s militia, Generals Atchison, Doniphon and Parks decided they needed to call out the militia to prevent further violence. Missouri’s governor, Lilburn Boggs, however, feared the worse and issued an Extermination Order, making it legal for any citizen of Missouri to kill, steal from, or rape a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
September 6 – Colonel Jennings of northern Livington County assembles 275 militiamen to strike back at the Mormons. Moving into eastern Caldwell County, unprotected, they assemble to attack Haun’s Mill. The soldiers opened fire for a surprise attack, sending the 80 Mormon families there fleeing for the hills. Women and children attempted to make it into the woods, while the boys and men set up to defend the settlement. Though they managed to kill seven of the militiamen, they were all eventually shot down in the end. In all, 39 Mormons were killed in what would become the Haun’s Mill Massacre, in addition to the 7 militia.
News would soon reach Far West, where an enraged populace would begin to assemble a militia for revenge. However, the Mormons were now clearly on the defensive.
***
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_War#The_Gallatin_Election_Day_Battle
Sorry for cutting you guys off at the last moment there, but I've really got to get some shut-eye.
Look forward for more!